1066258 Pte. Alexander Hoy and 1066239 Pte. Charles Wilford Hoy were born to Richard and Isabella Hoy. Alexander was born in Varney, Ontario, on March 27th, 1885, and Charles was born in Artemesia, Ontario, on October 21st, 1891.
Both men were married and raising families and working as farmers in Grey County when hostilities broke out. Alexander and his wife, Ethel, had a daughter, Mable, while Charles and his wife, Olive, had a son, Richard, and a daughter, Ella.
Twenty-five year old Charles attested into the 248th Battalion in March 6th, 1917, and thirty-one year old Alexander would follow his younger brother's example, enlisting on March 19th. Sailing with the unit in early June of that year, the 248th Battalion was absorbed into the 8th Reserve Battalion upon its arrival in England, whose mandate was to supply reinforcements to the 58th Battalion and the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles.
Both men were taken on strength of the 4th C.M.R. in the field on October 19th, 1917, reporting to them on November 1st. Having missed Passchendaele, they served through the winter and into the battles that marked the start of Canadian Corps' final 100 days of the war.
It was on August 10th, 1918, during the Battle of Amiens, that Charles received a shrapnel wound to his right arm. His "Blighty" (a wound severe enough to send him to England (Blighty) or even home) indeed took him out of the line for the remainder of the war, as he was medically evacuated to England and not discharged from the hospital until November 25th, 1918.
1066239 Private Charles Wilford Hoy was struck off strength of the Canadian Expeditionary Force as being medically unfit on February 1st, 1919. He passed away of natural causes in the Veteran's wing of Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital on November 14th, 1962, and was laid to rest in Kitchener's Woodland Cemetery.
1066258 Alexander Hoy survived the final hundred days of the war without any physical wounds and was struck off strength of the Canadian Expeditionary Force on March 20th, 1919. He passed away 14 years before his brother, also at Sunnybrook, on January 11th, 1948, and was laid to rest in Saint John's (Norway) Cemetery in Toronto.
Their service is remembered locally on the Eugenia Falls Cenotaph.
Biography credit: George Auer, with thanks.